New York - The New York Police Department says Newark, N.J., police officials knew exactly what it was doing in their city during a 2007 intelligence-gathering operation.

The NYPD’s operation catalogued and photographed every mosque in Newark. Police eavesdropped inside Muslim businesses and listed them in files.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker has called the operation “deeply offensive” and said his police never knew such broad canvassing was going on.

NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said Thursday the NYPD told Newark police about the operation before it began and briefed them afterward. Browne made the remarks during a briefing with reporters at police headquarters in Manhattan.

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The NYPD says the operation was legal, citing Supreme Court rulings and a court order governing the gathering of intelligence.

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Feb 23, 2012 at 08:44 PMkvetcher Says:

This is such a non story.At least there is one agency in the country doing its job. The NYPD "trolls" the internet looking for suspected pedophiles. It has undercover officers pretending to be prostitutes, it has undercover officers pretending to be drug dealers. This is called good police work.For those of you that think that you are being "open minded" and say, "how would you like it if the NYPD or some other government agency surveilled the jewish community for a stereotypical crime?" My answer to you is that they do. IRS agents can walk into any store and listen and watch to see if the customers pay in cash or if they pay tax etc.Until the AP reports on a civil rights violation committed by the NYPD during the scope of this surveillance program this story is nothing more then a report that the NYPD is doing its job.